Fever Beat!
by Sticky Barb
Summary: Hawkeye is addicted to K-pop... but there is more trouble looming over the horizon than Ickhart beating the pirate who has terrible singing skills up. What is Francis the Puppeteer up to now...? -discontinued-
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Uh, yeah, another Knights of Cygnus fan fiction. I seem to be having a bit of writer's block, so I apologize if the quality is not as good as usual.

I want to say, though, before you begin reading – I am not an anti-Korean pop type of guy! I love K-pop, and only want to spread the word with this fan fiction. And MapleStory is from Korea, so I'm just helping the country where my favorite MMORPG comes from. Now that I'm done, here we go...

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><p>"I'm singin' my <em>blues...<em>"

Ickhart growled in irritation as he tried to blot out the sound of Hawkeye's horrible singing, shifting around on his tree branch perch uncomfortably as he tried to read his book – a novel called 'Aegis' – and cursed as he nearly lost his balance and fell from the tree. Ickhart had on more than one occasion today considered hitting the noisy pirate with a Disorder to the tongue to shut him up, but Mihail was standing just a few metres away and would probably not like it if he hit a comrade (even one as irritating as Hawkeye).

"Hey, sparky!" The night walker snapped, removing his mask angrily and glaring down at the Commander of Lightning, who was swaying around like a drunkard with his Beats headphones on. "Keep it down..."

Either the pirate couldn't hear him, or he was simply ignoring his warning. Either way, Hawkeye continued singing the song (the song, 'Blue', was apparently by a group called 'Big Bang' – ironically, Big Bang was also the name of a catastrophic event almost a year back, that had changed Victoria Island forever. According to Oz, the group called 'Big Bang' was as famous as their namesake). A vein visibly bulged in Ickhart's forehead, and the Commander of Darkness suddenly felt an overwhelming urge to crush his mask in frustration – however, he decided against it (it _was _his favorite mask, after all)

and vanished from the branch in a blur, the leaves of the tree not even rustling.

_I'll find some other place to read, where no pain-in-the-neck pirate will be there to annoy me. Any prospective night walkers are just unlucky... _Ickhart snorted as he leaped through the trees of the Lotus Forest nimbly, looking for a peaceful place to read. His black cape fluttered like a dark cloud in the light, but few people had sharp enough eyes to properly see exactly _what _the black blur in the forest was.

* * *

><p>Irina whirled around as she heard a rustle behind her. Her emerald eyes scanned the forest for any threats, an arrow finding its way into her bow almost automatically.<p>

_Nothing._ The wind breaker sighed in relief and returned her attention to her training in the depths of the Lotus Forest, firing blazing Soul Arrows at numerous wooden targets she had nailed to various trees in the forest. Spinning around and firing a dozen arrows in quick succession, she grinned as each projectile found its target with a dull thunk.

The Green Breeze of the Wind Breakers wiped her brow with a silk handkerchief, letting out a tired pant. She had been training non-stop since early morning, wanting to practice her shooting – and it appeared her skill had slipped slightly. She had been practicing to return her dexterity back to the point where she could hit a moving target at five hundred feet upside down with one eye closed–

Another rustle behind her. Something was definitely up. Irina tightened her grip on her bow, not letting down her guard after the Valentine's Day incident. "I know you're there, you know," she said simply, raising her bow. "So you can either hide until I eventually find you and send an arrow up your butt, or just show yourself like a noble person and settle any business you have here."

"Well played, Irina."

A tall, caped figure materialized seemingly out of thin air, and Irina recognized him as the chief knight of the night walkers. "Icky!" she laughed (much to Ickhart's chagrin), lowering her bow. "What are you doing out here stalking me?"

"I was _not _stalking you," Ickhart stated with a deadly edge to his voice. His eyes were hidden behind his mask, making it hard for Irina to determine his emotion. "Sparky was singing so badly I had to run from him."

The chief knight of the wind breakers nodded in understanding. _Oh, so he still hasn't caught on the craze that is K-pop..._

K-pop was a relatively new genre of music that had appeared on the radio waves recently. Oz had did some... _research _(seriously though – was there anything the sorceress didn't know about?), and had explained the trend to both Irina and Mihail a few weeks ago.

"_The genre 'K-pop', or 'Korean pop', comes from the Korean Folk Town. While is isn't exactly new, it only made it big time after the Erevian Council moved to provide the town with several of the latest technological advances. Since then, the 'K-wave', or Hallyu in the local Korean language, has begun spreading – forming girl and boy idol groups with dance pop performances, creating a myriad of entertaining variety shows, and shooting various addictive dramas." _Well, _addictive _was right. Hawkeye had gotten hooked on K-pop almost instantly, spending almost all of his salary on several albums by idol groups – and Oz had already splurged a large amount of her life savings on a literal truckload of Korean drama DVDs. Even Nineheart had been flabbergasted at the sheer amount of _'entertainment' _she had bought (_"The length of the dramas combined probably surpassed the age of the Divine Bird," _he had commented dryly). Even the ever serious Mihail had begun watching Korean variety shows, constantly laughing till his abdomen ached (and his abdominal muscles were practically made of bronze!). In fact, Irina and Oz had begun watching the piles and piles of dramas together since a couple of weeks ago, and often showed up for knight duty with bags under her eyes. All over the world, the craze had spread – and now, it was almost impossible to spend a day without any contact with what Ickhart called 'the taint'.

The verdict: If 'K-fever' was the normal level of an average fan, Hawkeye would have been classified as having K-cancer – _stage four._

The only person Irina knew who had not been affected was Ickhart. And she wasn't surprised...

* * *

><p>Mihail watched as Hawkeye began doing squats at the base of Ickhart's tree, singing terribly out of key. "Gee gee gee <em>gee <em>baby _baby _baby," he wailed, oblivious to the fact that he sounded like a dying giraffe on caffeine overdose. The soul master could only sigh in disbelief, thinking: _Is it even possible to sing that terribly?_

With a barely masked grin, he whipped out his touch-screen smartphone (a birthday gift from Oz) and booted up the game 'Girls' Generation SHAKE', an admittedly addictive game he played whenever he felt bored or wasn't training.

"_Jigeumeun Sonyuhshidae!" _cheered nine feminine voices. Mihail smirked. _Now, let's see if I can break that high score..._

* * *

><p>Deep within the depths of the Ant Tunnel, a certain puppeteer was scheming yet again. Francis stroked the head of his puppet, as though expecting it to purr, and flipped through the book in front of him: 'K-pop for Dummies' (<em>"I am not a dummy!" <em>he had shouted rather senselessly at the Gentleman when the latter had given him the book. _"I am a genius puppeteer!"_).

"So..." the hooded man murmured. "I'm supposed to use this trend as my new weapon. I wonder what the Black Wings are thinking... but this is intriguing. Intriguing indeed."

With a wave of his palm, the puppeteer summoned a small swarm of floating pebbles, each with a tiny necromantic inscription carved onto them. "I shall lure the knights with this K-pop craze, and destroy them in one fell swoop!" Francis cackled, his evil voice echoing throughout the cavern and making several small lizards flee in terror. "_Muahahahahahahah! _Francis _is _a genius puppeteer!"

Suddenly, a wild Cargo appeared at the entrance of the hideout – followed by dozens of its herd members. The hungry creatures cast their sights upon Francis the puppeteer, licking their lips in anticipation.

"_OH CRAP! I ACCIDENTALLY UNLOCKED THE – __**AAAAAACCCKKKK!**__"_

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><p>AN: I know, short chapter... Review, would you kindly? I was listening to Big Bang's "Blue" song while writing this. From beginning to end, just one song... I feel like I'm gonna explode. The next chapter is almost done, but I'll post this up first. Once I get a couple of reads (and hopefully reviews) I'll put up Chapter 2!


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Oh my goshhhhh I'm so sorry for not updating in so long. You will _not _believe what I have been going through, so I'll spare you the horrors. This is my first time using a proper computer in a long time, so I'm finally able to type up this chapter. I've been reviewing and stuff with my PSP (which, by the way, my nemesis – uh, I mean parents will be taking away to store in a mysterious vault in Nirvana in about an hour. So there. Well, enjoy the chapter I guess...

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><p>A tanned, silver-haired man leaned against the dirty, soot-covered concrete walls of Kerning City's Naora Hospital, sighing tiredly. An enormous, bandaged up weapon was leaning against his shoulders – the legendary pole-arm Maha was in slumber, and Aran wasn't going to wake the temperamental spirit up (he was enough of a grouch already). The pole-arm master brushed his white locks away from his eyes, making a mental note to get a haircut later, and looked around nervously, tilting his blue bamboo hat down to cover his eyes.<p>

"Where is she...?" he muttered, tearing a wanted poster of himself off the wall. The Black Wings had been aggressively seeking his capture lately, and Aran had been attacked by meso-hungry mercenaries almost a dozen times in the past few weeks. He had caught public attention with his reawakening, and now it was time to go incognito. Ever since he had returned to the peak of his former powers, the Black Wings had begun to hunt him down, not hesitating to kill anyone in their way. And he didn't want anyone to be hurt – especially Lirin...

He tried to keep a low profile. After all, if word got out that the warrior hero, Aran, was in the thief-infested Kerning City with the queen of elves, they would most likely be swarmed by all sorts of people. And the famous lone wolf pole-arm master _hated _being crowded by fools that he could split in half in less than a moment.

The doors of the hospital opened, revealing the elf Mercedes in a baseball cap and cloak. Her entire right arm was covered in bandages, and her dual bowguns were strapped to the back of her thighs. She glanced around warily, before finally stepping down the stairs regally and swished her cloak, covering up her body. Aran thought it was sort of a waste, considering her enviable figure and oh-so-gorgeous legs, but he accepted that the elf queen preferred avoiding detection over attracting humans to drool over her. He did wonder what would happen if the both of them got drunk at the same time, then got into a room alone–

"I got my arm patched up," she spoke suddenly, interrupting Aran's thoughts. "Maybe I shouldn't overexert my arm during Final Attack next time."

"Told you archers can't handle Final Attack as well as us warriors," the pole-arm master smirked.

"Hey, you're one to talk! You don't even _know _Final Attack."

"...touche. Anyway, let's go grab a bite. There should be a fast food joint near–"

"_**Surprise~"**_

Both heroes had their weapons out and pointed at the source of the exclamation in moments; Aran somehow managed to unravel the bandages around Maha and was now pointing the majestic weapon at their 'assailant', while Mercedes had both of her bowguns in her hands, fingers twitching in anticipation at pulling the trigger. A veritable cloud of dust was kicked up by the sudden motions of the overpowered heroes, drawing the attentions of random people who were passing by... _Damn, this is gonna blow our cover real bad... _thought Aran with a grimace.

As the dust cloud settled, revealing a slightly amused looking man in a fancy white uniform and matching cape and blue hat, the two heroes recognized their 'attacker' instantly as the legendary thief Phantom.

"Is this how you welcome an old friend?" the thief said silkily, waggling his cane at the two with a smirk on his face. Phantom was never caught without a smile, never caught off guard, and _never _tracked down – those were the reasons why Aran disliked the thief so much. _He shouldn't be trusted, and can't be trusted._

"P-Phantom!" Mercedes stammered, turning red almost immediately and staggering back in surprise. Aran fought the urge to facepalm and quickly re-bandaged Maha, glaring at Phantom. The thief chuckled under his breath and tipped his hat in greeting, making Mercedes blush furiously. "Salutations, my dear Merc," he murmured in a low tone. "How's it going for the both of you?"

_We were doing fine until you showed up, _Aran thought grumpily, resting Maha on his shoulder with a grunt. "Get to the point, Phantom," the warrior growled, a little harsher than he had intended. "What are you here for?"

The thief hero's eyes glinted with anticipation, making the pole-arm master shudder in... fear? Phantom was excited, and when a thief of Phantom's caliber was excited, no good could come out of it.

_No good at all._

"Have you seen a certain possession of mine, then?" Phantom stretched out his palm and balanced a card on his index finger, somehow managing to keep it twirling on his digit without it dropping to the ground. "It's... a card of mine. A very special card..."

Mercedes shook her head. "No, Phantom, I haven't seen any cards around besides normal, boring looking ones. How does your card look like?"

Phantom's face displayed a rare flash of frustration, but it vanished before Aran could get a good lock onto his emotion. _What was that...? Is the great thief Phantom actually irritated at losing one of his possessions?_

"It's... a normal card," the thief admitted almost sheepishly. "It has a value to me though, and it has a picture of me and... and... _and her."_

The three heroes were silent for a moment as memories of their Empress, Aria, flooded back into their minds. They had all been at least acquainted to the young ruler of the Maple World, and her death had come as a huge shock to all of them; especially to Phantom, who – despite his poker face – obviously had loved her with all his heart. That event was what prompted Phantom to join the path of a hero... _You're still clinging onto those old memories even after all these years, aren't you? The memories of Empress Aria... _For a moment, Phantom looked sad, vulnerable even – as human as the rest of them. Aran could actually sympathize with the thief for that one second...

There was an awkward cough from Phantom, who resumed his usual poker face flawlessly. "Anyway, give me a call if you find it, yeah? Oh, and also I wanted to invite you guys to this."

He produced a glowing card, pulsing with blue energy, and flicked it in Mercedes' direction. The elven archer/gunner caught the card flawlessly, and the card glowed white-hot for a second before crumbling into dust. Mercedes blinked unsteadily, and Aran recognized that as a side-effect of one of Phantom's cards – specifically, cards that allowed the receiver to get information instantly. Incidentally, they could also override one's memory and turn the receiver insane, but Aran ignored that 'minor health hazard' and asked "What the hell was that?"

"An event I wanted to invite you two to, obviously, knucklehead." Phantom grinned lopsidedly at Aran, making him grit his teeth (_that damn thief was so damned snobby!_). "Oh, and don't even think about attacking me – you won't connect, trust me."

The warrior snorted and turned away, choosing instead to look at his elven companion. "What was that about?" she muttered in confusion, still blinking stars out of her eyes. "K-pop... concert? 2NE1? TVXQ? What are these... guild names? Flight numbers?"

"A concert?" Aran almost shouted, but managed to keep his voice down. "We don't have time for this... this Horntail crap! We've gotta get stronger, then defeat the Black–"

"_Excellent idea, Phantom~!" _Mercedes exclaimed excitedly, making Aran almost fall over in surprise. "I haven't listened to music in a while, actually, so this will be an awesome opportunity for me to get acquainted with human culture and music! I don't even know how much your race's culture has changed in the last hundred years, so I will go! T-Thank you, Phantom!"

_She took the bait... hook, line, sinker, and also devoured the entire rod... _Aran sighed and rubbed his forehead, feeling a massive headache coming on.

"Maybe I'll entertain the crowd with my piano playing," Phantom murmured softly, twirling an imaginary moustache.

"...you don't _know _how to play a piano, idiot."

"That's why I steal skills, my dears." Mercedes swooned yet again, and this time Aran couldn't resist the urge to facepalm and went ahead with the gesture of 'oh, eff this shit'ness.

"Well, you can go by yourself then. I'm gonna go train at Leafre..."

"What's wrong, Aran?" Phantom murmured almost mockingly, leaning forward in a taunting gesture. "Surely your fear of large crowds isn't _that _bad, Mr. Lone Wolf?"

"Shut up."

"I don't mind if he doesn't come, Phantom..." Mercedes said shyly, probably secretly hoping for a one-to-one date with the thief. _What's so great about that stuck up thief? _Aran wondered angrily, tightening his grip on Maha. The pole-arm master snorted again and began walking away in an angry huff – _I don't have the time to play around with these fools! I need to get stronger, and regain more memories, and... and..._

Aran suddenly remembered something. "Oh yeah, aren't you inviting Evan?"

He realized that that was the worst possible sentence he could utter at that moment, as the elf and the master thief were instantly relieved of their carnival mood and plunged _straight down _into 'Pissed Off Rock Bottom'.

_Things died when they were pissed._

Aran noticed Mercedes clench her fist for a second, before relaxing. The warrior knew that both the elf queen and the phantom thief had a... less than favorable impression of Evan and Mir, the successors of Freud the dragon master and Afrien the king of onyx dragons respectively – especially since they had had a close relationship with Freud. Aran himself had few memories of the long-dead dragon master, although he did get a sinking feeling in his chest whenever he thought about Freud, and was sure his two comrades felt likewise. The other two were reluctant to acknowledge the fact that Evan was Freud's successor... Aran was trying to change that.

He was failing, mostly, but it was the thought that counts, right?

"Uh, he's at Leafre too," the warrior said hurriedly in a lame attempt to save his ass. "If you want to invite him, he should be there... at the Dragon Nest."

Phantom scoffed, his face contorted into a bitter scowl. "The fool's gonna get himself and his little pet killed," he growled venomously. Mercedes nodded in agreement and put away her bowguns, folding her arms angrily and frowning at Aran for bringing up such a touchy subject.

The pole-arm master felt some anger rise in his chest – _Evan is far stronger than you think, arrogant thief scum! - _but forced it down. "Well, give it some thought, hmm?" he said quickly, tilting his bamboo hat down to cover more of his face and walking away. Phantom smirked yet again – and with a whirl of a cape and a flurry of cards, the thief was gone.

* * *

><p>"<em>Wow, fantastic baby..."<em>

Despite his best efforts, Francis' research had brought along an undesirable side effect. He couldn't stop singing, no matter how much he tried – in fact, the harder he tried, the more he sang, it seemed. He was almost convinced that the song 'Fantastic Baby' was imprinted permanently in his DNA, and had on more than one occasion seriously considered using a memory erasing spell on himself, in spite of the dangers...

"Boom shakalaka," the puppeteer muttered as he flipped through an old book of spells. "Boom shakalaka."

_If a simple song can do this, just imagine what would happen if I amplified its effects... _Francis stroked his puppet as sinisterly as a sinister three-feet-tall puppeteer could, combining a volatile substance with his other free hand. "Boom shakalaka... dance dance dance da-dance – _OH SWEET MOTHER OF_–"

The puppeteer jumped in surprise as a enormous explosion suddenly occurred several yards away from his current location, causing him to drop the concoction in his hand. Before he could respond, the fluid burst into flames, creating yet another blast that sent him flying across the cavern. _Boom shakalaka indeed, _Francis thought dryly as he sailed through the air, before being caught by a hand that shot out of the smoke clouds.

"I trust you've been making progress, Francis," Hylla murmured with a hint of amusement in her voice, dropping the puppeteer to the ground. "After my bid for the throne failed, we have to speed things up again."

Francis glared at the woman he had been forced to work together with to execute his 'Ultimate Erev Takeover Plan A' with disgust. _"What now?" _he spat with enough malice to eradicate the innocent Slime population ten times over. (But they're so cute!)

"Just checking on your progress. Are the preparations complete?"

"Almost..." Francis couldn't help but cackle in excitement. "We'll soon have Erev under our control... mwahahahahahahahaha! I am the best! _**Naega jeil jal naga~**_"

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><p>AN: The next chapter is 100% complete. Just stopping this here in case my parents tell me to shut this computer down. This chapter was written to Bad Apple, a Touhou song (Japanese, lol).

No knights, but moar heroz! How refreshing (for me at least). Tell me if I made any mistakes! (Is it Hilla or Hylla? lol)

**TRIVIA**

_**Naega jeil jal naga: **_I Am The Best, a song by 2NE1.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: I finally got MapleSEA working on my laptop after a two month hiatus, and got my first taste of Mercedes. AND I WANT MOARRRRR. And "_**LEVEL 10?**_"? The first time I laughed out loud playing as one of the legends! Priceless! But sadly there's server maintenance at the moment, so I'll type this up. I was actually waiting for Orion/Kerosene to review, but... Oh, and I made a cover for this story in about 30 seconds. Ain't much, but it looks better than my avatar at least...

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><p>Cygnus yawned, watching the expensive plasma TV in front of her with wavering interest as she stuffed her mouth with long-stale popcorn. After chewing and swallowing the cheap snack, she took another swig (yes, a swig, not a sip) of coffee, the caffeine keeping the empress awake despite her waning interest and grey bags under her eyes – she had been watching this drama, <em>'Fashion King'<em>, for the past 18 hours, and was determined to finish the final episode before calling it a night.

Suddenly, the door to her room swung opened and banged loudly against the wall, making her jump in surprise. _No one enters my room without my permission! _She thought in shock, turning to the one who had just entered in a rather rude manner... none other than the royal tactician himself.

"Oh. Good evening, Nineheart."

Not unlike Ickhart, Nineheart was completely unaffected by the K-wave outside of propaganda purposes – so it was his misfortune to have all of Cygnus's paperwork dumped upon his shoulders as the empress indulged herself in a flood of Korean 'wonderfulness'. His eyes had dark rings around them too, but for completely different reasons than Cygnus. His shoulders were slumped tiredly, and his fingers appeared sore from gripping a pen for way too long. "With all due respect," he murmured darkly, unfurling a large scroll. "What madness is this?"

The scroll was large, colorful, and most importantly, completely Korean. Cygnus blinked in confusion, not knowing how to read Korean (however, she _had _considered hiring several tutors so she could understand the lyrics of Korean songs...). "Uh, what is that...?"

"Apparently, some fool went online and started gathering signatures to stage a huge K-pop concert in Erev," Nineheart said, pocketing the scroll with a grimace. "Over _five million _Maplers have voiced their approval! And who might that idiot be? An anon named 'Sicnarf'."

Nineheart didn't press the issue further, choosing to simply sigh and lean against the wall tiredly. "Empress, this craze has to stop... Empress?"

The Empress was staring at the ceiling with a look of utter delight on her face, grinning like she just hit the lottery and was about to receive a Master Ball.

The strategist stared in horror, then sighed, turning away. "I'll begin the preparations," he said in defeat, before leaving, closing the door with a dejected, barely audible click.

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><p>Phantom reappeared aboard his airship with a shower of glowing, magical cards, an expression of utter frustration etched across his face. His hand gripped his cane so tightly that veins would be visible, if only he took off his white gloves.<p>

"_Damn it!" _the thief roared in anger, raising his cane to the moon and releasing a large burst of energy that resulted in a large, colorful explosion – normally, explosions never failed to cheer Phantom up, but his mood was far from normal now. He had lost his most prized card, a memento of his lost love, Aria. _Ugh... how could I lose it? Damn!_

"Phantom!"

Hearing the unfamiliar, young voice, Phantom immediately whirled around and pointed his cane at the source of the voice in one swift move, all traces of any negative emotion replaced with a smug smirk. He formed a magical bow with his powers, shaping an ethereal arrow pointed right at his intruder. Or in this case... intruder_s._

"C-Calm down! It's me, Evan!" the child said with a panicky voice, while next to him, his onyx dragon (now fully grown) growled threateningly, ready to attack should the thief attempt to attack his master. Phantom's smile wavered for a moment, before dissipating like the morning mist. He was extremely good at keeping up a poker face, but he didn't feel like wasting his effort on this... this _boy _at the moment.

Also, due to his epic poker face, Aran refused to play poker with him – but that was a story for another day. The thief lowered his cane. "Go away, kid," Phantom warned gruffly, turning away to hide his discomfort.

"Is there something wrong, s-sir?"

The thief turned to look back a little, and caught Evan staring with a look of genuine concern. The moment their eyes met, though, the younger hero gulped in fear and looked away with a scared expression. Phantom snorted and turned his back to the Henesys farm boy, staring at the moon blankly. "Child of Henesys, the great thief Phantom does not waste his time," he said pompously. "What business do you have in coming here?"

"Me?" Evan seemed at a loss for words, for whatever reason. _Looking for an excuse, maybe? _"I just happened to see this ship floating near where I was training, and decided to visit and see if you were in."

_Visit? Jeez, and I thought Freud was nosy enough. _"Well, hello. Now leave."

It wasn't a request.

Evan sighed, and in a totally unexpected maneuver, walked calmly towards the thief – and Phantom was _never _surprised. "Could it be that you're still holding onto the events of Empress Aria's–"

"_**Don't **say her name," _Phantom hissed angrily, clenching his fist. _What does **he** know? I'll bet his grandparents weren't even born when we sealed the Black Mage!_

He couldn't see Evan, but he could hear the satisfied smile in the farm boy's voice. "So it's true... you wanted to steal something, but instead got something stolen from you..."

Before the legendary thief could respond, both child and dragon vanished in a bright burst of stardust, scattering glitter all over the skies. Phantom gaped in surprise, looking for Evan – _where? Where is he?_

A card fluttered down from above, and the cardmaster snatched it out of the air immediately upon seeing it. There was an illustration of himself and Aria on it... _That... This is my card? But... But how? He found it for me?_

_Phantom! _He heard Evan speak in his mind through some sort of telepathic connection, and staggered back in surprise. This... this was too many unexpected events in a row for the great Phantom! _Aran told me everything. I found this in one of the forests in Leafre – that's why you were so pissed, right? Because of this card?_

And so Phantom regained his most precious card. The thief was speechless for a moment as he stared into the distance, where a boy was flying off into the horizon on his onyx dragon, waving happily. The tips of his mouth twitched, and he finally gave up and smiled back at Evan.

"That son of a gun." Phantom slipped the card into a hidden pocket, turning away contentedly and returning to his sleeping quarters. "Maybe... Just maybe... Freud wasn't wrong in picking you as his successor..."

* * *

><p>"<em>Electric... Electric shock..."<em>

Hawkeye had found a new favorite song – the excellent _'Electric Shock' _by f(x). The catchy lyrics and awesome beats were just too much for the pirate to resist, and considering his position as the chief knight of lightning, this song was certainly suitable for him. He had been singing the song for close to a whole day now...

The knights were at their usual spot, waiting for recruits or for those who wanted a job advancement. Mihail was polishing his sword with a rag, scrubbing furiously at a stubborn stain, while Oz was on her laptop with earphones on. It was unknown what she was doing, but she had a devious smirk on her face (which slightly frightened Hawkeye, but he tried to look cool at all times since he was awesome) as though she was formulating an evil plan, which was fairly common.

Irina was missing, apparently training in the Lotus Forest. Mihail had been worried about her, as the Wind Breaker had been training non-stop for the past week instead of doing what she usually did (which was watch dramas with Oz), but the Chief Knight of Flames assured the warrior that she was just 'polishing up her skills' – which confused him even further, as Irina didn't need any more training, but he accepted that explanation without any further prying.

As for Ickhart... "_Damn it, _Hawkeye!" The Night Walker shouted from his perch on his favorite tree, the irritation in his voice apparent despite his attempt to mask it (quite literally). "Stop singing those goddamn songs!"

The pirate didn't hear him, as usual, and continued his off-key singing. Ickhart's palm glowed with the green light of Disorder for a brief moment, before dissipating just as quickly as the Night Walker decided to tolerate his most irritating comrade for another few seconds. Oz smiled at the sight, and tried hard not to giggle – Hawkeye was 'practicing' for the upcoming K-pop concert, and practically sang Korean songs all day without any pause, even dreaming about idols in his sleep! _There's a fine line between admiration and idolatry! _Ickhart thought angrily, gritting his teeth and attempting to blot out the sound of the pirate's singing by reading his favorite book, 'Absolute Genocide for Dummies'.

"_**Jeom jeom ppalra jineun beat jeom jeom deo keuge ttwineunde..."**_

Ickhart shifted around uncomfortably, the sound of singing grating on his sensitive ears. He tried his best to keep his cool, and not jump down and _castrate _the noisy bastard...

"_**Imi hangyereul neomeo seo- OOOOOON..."**_

"Damn it," the Night Walker muttered for what seemed like the millionth time that day, removing his mask to shout down at Hawkeye. "Hey, sparky! Shut the- "

"_**I'M IN SHOCK E-ELECTRIC SHOCK!"**_

Ickhart lost his balance and fell off his branch, smashing head-first into the ground next to Hawkeye. Oz laughed openly (and loudly) at this, and Mihail couldn't resist grinning – it wasn't everyday that the Chief Knight of Darkness fell off a tree branch and did a face plant, but today seemed to be one of those lucky days... and yet the Chief Knight of Lightning still sang, his back to the hilarious scene and oblivious to everything that was around him.

The Night Walker stood up with a murderous look in his eyes, and hit Hawkeye directly in the back of the head with a Disorder-infused punch. Enough was enough – and Ickhart knew that he would revel in the day the damn pirate gave up on his dreams of singing for good. With nothing more than a satisfied snort as Hawkeye crumpled to the ground, the irritated commander leaped back onto his lofty perch to continue his read, and the other two knights were wise enough to not laugh at him anymore.

* * *

><p>AN: The next chapter _might _be a songfic-ish chapter. Depends on my mood. And yeah, I know this chapter is short. Mostly filler.


	4. Chapter 4

The Commander of Darkness hated many things.

Kittens, small cute animals in general (once in a while the town guards would find Ereve's native wildlife massacred for no reason), hot days, love songs, Hawkeye, the Dark Lord, watermelons, peanut butter, and tons of other seemingly-random things. However, each item had a reason to be hated by Ickhart – most of it was caused by traumatic childhood memories of some sort. There _were _a few things he tolerated though. War poems, snowshoes, badass masks, and black roses.

Before his inception into the knights, Ickhart cared little about music, and certainly didn't care too much about it now. Unfortunately, when a certain asshole of a electric knight decided to sing all day long in a language he didn't understand, it was hard not to care anymore. So Ickhart embarked on a little online adventure, doing some 'research' on the phenomenon called K-pop.

_Why, _he wondered, _would people like girls and guys dress up prettily and dance to pointless confession songs? _It was beyond his realm of understanding, so he decided to ignore Hawkeye's repeated claims that 'K-pop has plenty of ballads for emos like you, too'. The mere fact that the pirate loved the genre to insanity was enough to make him steer clear of it, branding it a 'mind-consuming taint' and 'the bane of society'. So one could imagine his utter displeasure when the Empress announced that she, Lirin, and some pirate named Valerie (Hawkeye seemed to know her, much to his irritation) were performing a song named _'Smile Love You'_ at the upcoming concert in Erev.

"This is ridiculous," he had muttered under his breath, but his words were lost to the wind.

Anyway, right now the Night Walker rested peacefully in his tree, with his mask on. No one could tell if he was awake due to the mask blocking his face from view. Happily, Hawkeye was in a temporary coma in the Knight Infirmary so he wasn't here to bother him with his terrible singing. His salary for the month had been slashed in half, but Ickhart figured it was well worth it.

Mihail had been ignoring him recently, calling him the 'comrade killer' and refusing to say anything to him. Irina had been missing lately, apparently training in the forest, so the only person who would/could offer intelligent conversation was the Commander of Flames, Oz. Ickhart didn't appreciate her company much, but she was less annoying than Hawkeye by far so he tolerated her presence. She did, however, ramble a lot about Korean dramas though (she liked to pretend that someone was listening, when both him and Mihail weren't).

"And in the end of the drama, Jun and Hana get – are you listening?" the mage asked irritably.

The night walker didn't bother to hide his 'crime'. "No. It should've been obvious."

Oz sighed, walking over to the stairs and sitting down tiredly. _"Kim, suhanmu, kobukiwa tulumi..."_

"_...samcheon gapja dongbangsak, chichikapo sarisarisunta..." _Ickhart mumbled.

The commander of flames looked up in surprise at the night walker. "Huh? How did you–"

"I watched Secret Garden," he said with a bored-sounding tone. "I had thought it would give me some clues to the whereabouts of the Dual Blade's fabled hideout, but..."

"You ended up enjoying it, huh?! Hah!"

"...you assume things." Ickhart took off his mask briefly, examining it for any damage before putting it back on.

"Icky, can I ask you a question?"

_God, I hate that nickname. _"Shoot."

"Why do you wear that mask? All it seems to do is hinder your breathing and block off your peripheral vision."

_It doesn't block my vision, actually. _"It was... a gift," he replied after a short silence, "from someone dear."

"Who?"

"Doesn't matter, she's dead."

The silence after that lasted for the rest of the knights' shift, causing the two knight commanders much discomfort.

* * *

><p>"<em>Oppan Gangnam style!"<em>

"...stop it, Mercedes, you look like a fool."

"_Op-op-op-op-oppan gangnam style!"_

Aran muttered some colorfully offensive language under his breath as the elven queen dragged him around Kerning Square, her eyes excitedly flitting through the store in search of outfits. And her taste in fashion was, surprisingly, absolutely _horrible. _Mercedes had zero fashion sense when it came to human clothes, and after being dressed up as a teddy bear, a green apple, and even Pink Bean in one instance, the polearm master had snapped and bought a simple black T-shirt and jeans, demanding that the elf stop 'making me look like an monkey.'

"You already look like a monkey, Aran," was the queen's reply.

"_Ayyyyyyy sexy lady!"_

"Oh, for fu-"

* * *

><p>"So... a concert is being held in Erev, am I correct?"<p>

Tru the hilariously stupid detective nodded. "Uh-huh. An enormous one at that. A third of the Maple World is expected to attend, and there will be dozens of spectacular performances by the likes of Angelic Burster and stuff... and the Empress herself will be attending!

"Heh heh heh." The man in the dark robes chuckled darkly, making Tru gulp in fear. His latest client had been frighteningly creepy, with a scary aura-of-shadowy-badassness, and the floating orb of darkness behind him didn't help at all. Unfortunately, Tru had lost a lot of mesos in a game of Omok last night and was desperate to pay the bills, and he knew Aran would rob him of certain important organs if he asked him for money, so he was forced to take in this scary client. Thankfully, he hadn't asked anything hard.

Yet.

"Are the... five heroes attending?"

"Five heroes?" Tru said, scratching the back of his head. "There are only four that have awakened at the moment. The final mage hero, Luminous, is still missing."

The dark-robed man smiled venomously. "Who knows, Mr. Tru? Very well then... are the _four _heroes attending?" He twisted the word _four, _infusing it with enough malice to knock any regular person out. However, Tru was far more stupid than the average person, and he replied, "Aran is going, and so is Mercedes. Phantom did say he was going to try and invite Evan, but I dunno..."

The client laughed ominously again, sending a chill up Tru's ribs (not spine, 'cause he's a spineless idiot). In his experience, this type of client was nothing but trouble/catastrophe/disaster/other scary words, but the information dealer was far too dumb to take notice. "Excellent," his client said with a purr. Without another word, he slapped a hundred-meso note on the table and turned to head towards the door, his shoes trodding loudly on the wooden floor.

Tru snatched up the money greedily, before remembering that his mom had taught him basic manners and asked "Do you want a receipt, mister..."

"Luminous." The mage opened the door, making a jingling sound. "If Aran stops by, tell him I said hello..."

With a dull click, the door closed, leaving behind a confused Tru. _How can two people have the exact same name? Luminous isn't exactly a common name... Eh, whatever. That dark mage couldn't possibly be the famous magician of light. _Soon, Tru had forgotten all about the client as he dialled a number on his phone, desperate to have something to eat now.

* * *

><p>A mage dressed in dark purple emerged from Tru's shop, walking through Lith Harbor with a commanding aura-of-shadowy-badassness. A swirling orb of dark energy followed him as he walked, and that was enough for everyone in the marketplace to make way for him. He smiled. <em>Smart people. <em>He reached the outskirts of the harbor town, considering his options – turn into light and teleport all the way to Henesys, or take the 'scenic route' and kill everything he saw?

He grinned almost gleefully, a sadistic expression spreading across his face as his red eye glowed even brighter. Such wonderful pain he would inflict on the people here...

Half an hour later, the mage of darkness cackled as he killed yet another mushroom with falling shards of darkness, the field littered with dozens, even hundreds, of dead mushrooms. The orange mushrooms began to realise that this mage was not someone to mess with and fled in fear, squeaking death cries as the mage blasted the slow ones with arrows of light. "Come on, entertain me," he growled in disappointment as the mushrooms disappeared into the forest, lowering his glowing red staff in disappointment.

He spotted something rustling in the bushes, and he laughed almost hysterically, sending a barrage of magic lances at the source of the movement. There was a loud – but definitely human – cry of pain before everything was silent.

_What am I doing? _the mage thought suddenly, his red eye suddenly hurting more than ever. With a shriek of pain, he grabbed his eye and tried to gouge it out, screaming profanities his mentors told him to never use. _What have I done?! What's wrong with me?_ But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't seem to be able to dislodge his wretched eye.

_You need me, Luminous, _a dark voice said in his mind. _Without me, you're just another weakling, destined to fall at my hands. Accept me, and we will attain unimaginable power..._

"Screw you, Eclipse," Luminous grunted, and was rewarded with another piercing pain through his eye. This time, he was completely knocked out cold, falling to the ground helplessly as his body went limp. After a few moments, however, he got back up, sporting an evil grin on his twisted face.

"_The fool now refuses to give in like he did when he hurt Lania," _the Eclipse-possessed Luminous murmured in a silky voice. "Heh heh heh. I wonder how strong we have become? The only way to test our strength... _is to defeat the four heroes in battle._"

* * *

><p>AN: SORRY FOR THE DELAY. I just finished my biggest exam in three years yesterday, and I was restricted from using the computer since, I dunno, July? I swear I'll make it up to you. This was kinda rushed, so sorry if there are any errors anywhere... SORRY! (slaps self)

Oh, and I now play KMS! Woot! I've been testing out the new jobs recently, like the Tempest trio and Phantom, and all I can say is they're pretty cool! Can't wait for them to be released in English so I can understand them better...


End file.
